Lance Armstrong is not generally known for his generosity when it comes to his rivals.
But on Friday’s 12th stage of the Tour de France the American gave with one hand and took away with the other as he took a big step towards securing a record sixth victory in the race.
Armstrong, despite not yet taking the yellow jersey, inched closer to overtaking Spain’s Miguel Indurain as the king of the race with a second place behind exciting young Italian Ivan Basso of the CSC team on the first summit finish in La Mongie to serve a stiff reminder to his main contenders.
Germany’s 1997 winner, Jan Ullrich of T-Mobile, struggled to finish at two-and-a-half minutes adrift. For Tyler Hamilton, Armstrong’s former lieutenant who helped him win three of his five yellow jerseys, it was also a dubious day on the bike.
While Armstrong seemed to slow down before finishing a bike length behind Basso, who two years ago won the white jersey for the tour’s best rider under the age of 25, Hamilton finished almost three-and-a-half minutes down in 34th place, behind the stage’s best-placed Australian.
Quick Step’s Michael Rogers had a good first day in the mountains, finishing the 197,5km stage in 22nd place at 2,30 adrift of Basso.
Frenchman Thomas Voeckler retained the race leader’s yellow jersey but had to work hard to keep it on his shoulders on a day that saw the riders take a soaking as the rain came down before the final 15km climb to La Mongie.
The 24-year-old La Boulangere rider, who led Armstrong by nine minutes and 35 seconds overnight, arrived 3,59 behind Basso and now leads Armstrong by 5,24 minutes in the general classification.
A pained-looking Ullrich is now in 16th place overall at 9,01.
Hamilton is 20th at 9,46.
After Armstrong had severely compromised their chances of victory, he strangely revealed he had allowed Basso to win because he is helping the Italian’s mother in her fight against cancer.
”We’ve been friends for a long time and off the bike we’re trying to work a little bit on his mum’s situation, to try and see if she can win the fight against cancer,” said cancer survivor Armstrong, who on the day saw his 55-second advantage over Ullrich grow to three minutes and 37 seconds.
”It’s pretty special for me to have been out there with him [Basso] and the past week we haven’t spoke about the race, we’ve spoke about his mum.
”It was a pleasure for me to let him [Basso] win, and he deserved to win. He was super strong.”
Armstrong and his US Postal team braved early rain on the first climb before putting their foot on the gas on the way up the day’s second, unclassified, climb to La Mongie.
As Ullrich and Hamilton were forced off the back, Armstrong eventually chased down an attack by CSC rider Carlos Sastre before duelling with Basso, the Spaniard’s teammate, in the final kilometre before the Italian overtook him in the final metres before the finish line.
The 26-year-old, who like Australian Rogers is considered yellow-jersey potential for the future, admitted that he simply put his good legs to use.
”It was difficult for a lot of riders, but I had good legs and I just seized my chance,” said Basso, who made no mention of his talks with Armstrong about his mother’s illness.
As Ullrich and Hamilton try to ease the pain of the first day in the mountains — Saturday’s will be much worse — it looks like they now have to battle just to stay in contention.
For Veteran Scott Sunderland, of Alessio, Armstrong’s feat against Ullrich and Hamilton has all but handed him victory.
”I think what Lance wanted to do was just put a big gap into his main contenders. A guy like Sastre or Basso’s not a problem for him because he’ll beat them on the time trial uphill [at Alpe d’Huez] and he’ll for sure put time into them on the flat day,” said Sunderland, who rode home at just more than 18 minutes adrift next to Liberty sprinter Allan Davis.
”He [Armstrong] always does it though, one of the first mountain stages, Lance always gives them a big wack, and it’s always easier to defend a lead than get it back.
”It’s when you’ve got somebody as a shadow, it’s no good. Like last year with Ullrich. He could never get past Lance, just had to follow him around. When you’ve got this shadow on you, it’s harder to get away. So, I think he’s in a good position. He’s done some damage today. It’s his first step to the sixth win.”
Robbie McEwen, the Lotto sprinter in the green jersey, came in at 27,02, but still had the energy to do a wheelie for the crowd, complete with a victory salute.
Fdjeux.com pair Baden Cooke and Matthew Wilson came in at 28,34. — Sapa-AFP